>>> What A Day! <<<

Wanted to bring the boys out to the library but thankfully I called and found out it was closed today! What a bummer! To make it worse, it poured heavily so couldn't think of anywhere to go with the boys. Thankfully, MIL popped over and entertained the boys for a while. She even managed to bring both out to the shops and got them each a cake! Bless her!

As for me, been busy fulfuling DT duties as I've got a few assignment due end of the month. Will share as soon as they have been displayed!

TTFN!

>>> Crop! <<<

Decided to popped into the Birmingham Junction 7 crop as I missed last Sunday's crop due to Ladies Nite! Glad I did as I need 'me' time badly. Managed to complete 2 LOs and made some new friends too. Will definitely go again next month as it's their first birthday so it will be fun! TTFN!

>>> Grey's Anatomy! <<<

Oh man! Today marks the start of Series 3 of Grey's Anatomy. The first episode was a scorcher! Hat's off to the writer of the series... so much emotion, the storyline just leaves you begging for more! No other TV programmes has me in grips (apart from Desperate Housewives & Prison Break!) That's it... Thursday nite at 10pm is reserved now for TV... no more scrapping! TTFN!

>>> Hambly! <<<

Postie brought me a fantastic box of Hambly goodies from Scrapitude! Oh man, the kit is so gorgeous, the overlays and papers! Not sure how I'm gonna bring myself to use them! Absolutely adore Hambly products!

The evening saw hubby & I at Lyndon Green, attending a parent's meeting with the school for Zac's entry this September. We were informed which class and teacher he will be having. He definitely won't be lonely as I saw a fair number of his Nursery mates there (oh well, recognised their parents anyway!) His best friend is even in the same school although not in the same class. I'm sure he will enjoy his Infant school as much as his Nursery! Pity Oliver won't be around as he will be in the Juniors (same compound but different buildings, each with their own Head!) TTFN!

>>> Amy Butler! <<<

Discovered a new love! Fabrics!!! Check out Amy Butler, her stuff is amazing. Oh gosh those handbags are to die for! Now I wished I had taken up home economics at secondary school instead and focus on sewing. I could easily then have made those bags! Sigh!

Then this morning, found a local retailer selling an Amy Butler fabric scrapbooking tote!!!

How pretty is that!!! Decided to google to find out more about it and eventually I was directed to US QVC to look into more detail about the bag. Completely sold and I succumbed to my weakness for bags. Apart from scrapping stash, I got a big weakness for bags of any nature. As a kid I used to change my school bags ever so often. As I grew older, my handbags accumulated as rapidly as my shoes! Anyway, what I like about this tote is that fact that it can be used for other purposes as well... some liken it to a diaper bag... too bad my boys are out of diapers. I went for the multi-coloured (Sola) bag as it appealed more to me. I'm into bright, bold colours at the moment.

Can't wait for its arrival... TTFN!

>>> Food! <<<

Attended a breakfast workshop at Zac's Nursery. Basically it's all about reading the food label and showing you the amount of sugar that exist in a typical cereal helping. Those like cocopops, frosties contain an obscene amount of sugar while weetabix has less of course! Then it was onto introducing the kids to healthier forms of breakfast. Zac had 2 bowls of different cereals, rice krispies and shreddies! Seriously I don't know where he puts it all in....

Gosh, I sure as hell miss my breakfast in Singapore. Forget about bread and cereals, bring on nasi lemak (rice soaked in chilli with ikan bilis (small fried fish), fried egg and otak (chilli mince fish). Heavens. Or how about carrot cake, wan tan noodle, chwee kuay etc. Sounds obscene but man they are flippin delicious! I can't tell how much I dislike having to eat bread everyday. Eating cereal isn't an option as it's not my usual diet. Sigh... I can but only dream.....

Yup, miss the food back home and more importantly, miss my favourite fruits. Durians, mangosteen, duku etc. Now I can find Thai durian in the chinese supermarket but as they are Thai, absolutely smell-less and mostly likely tasteless too! Nothing beats the Malaysian durian... stinkin(to some people) but fabulous taste. Luv the bitter sweet ones. I've seen mangosteen being sold here but it's sold per fruit for about 60p. To think I used to buy by the kilo... S$10 for 3 kg worth of mangosteen! Oh and there's duku, a fruit not even found here at all. That is my all time favourite fruit and if I can't find any in the local store near my house, I would drive all the way to Geyland where I know I can get some. It sucks not being able to eat what I was accustomed to....

As for food, my biggest loss has to be seafood as this country sucks big time for fresh fish and seafood. Boy do we have so much problem buying fish in supermarkets as it's always not fresh. God knows how many times we've been conned and I'm talking about well-known supermarkets too selling bloody rotten fish! DISGUSTING! Do miss my chilli and pepper crabs.... well, the good part I guess is not increasing my cholesterol level!

I guess I can only dream about the food I used to eat.... TTFN!

>>> Random Thoughts! <<<

Boy am I so glad that the smoking ban is coming into place on 1 July. That means no smoking in buildings. That will be such a relief! Hate going to restaurants where there's smokers and it's just spoils any appetite you have having to smell sinking smoke! That means you can start going out to pubs, clubs and not come out stinking to high heaven of smoke too! I've got nothing against smokers just can't stand the smoke from cigarettes and cigars! At the recent Christening I attended, there were a couple who was sitting in a corner of a confined room with no windows opened, smoking away and the room was filled with children and babies too! How flippin' inconsiderate! As said, I've not against smokers but I'm against them filling my breathable air with poison!

The weather's been crapped this week. Raining all week and flippin cold too. No chance to pack away any winter wear!

Been busy fulfilling my DT duties... have done a few LOs and I know I've got 2 boxes of assignment kits coming. Yeah! Nothing like having work to do! :)

TTFN!

>>> Asian Dare #8! <<<

Is out!!! Check it out on the blog. This week's theme focus on inspiration from Nature and here's my interpretation of it:

Played with Zing Boom March kit, Basic Grey Perhaps paper. Printed out a few baby photos of the boys as I've not gotten round to scrapping their baby photos.

TTFN!

>>> Tooty Toot! <<<

It was an early start for us as we had a Christening to attend. Hubby's cousin's little girl was being Christened. She has a lovely unusual name (well, unusual to me)... Breagha. She's such a laid-back baby... not once did she make a fuss, not even when her hair was washed with holy water. She just took it all in and smiled! Amazing! In fact, all day, she hardly cried. Gosh, that's the kind of baby you don't mind having, no fuss and simply delightful!

Got home, settled down and went online only to discover that I won a competition on Back Porch Memories to become June Guest Designer. Woo Hoo! Made my day!!! Here's my winning entry:

The requirement was to use at least 2 products from Daisy D's. I think I've got loads of Daisy D's on this LO. Why is it that the photos that you take that aren't perfect make the best scrapping pic??? Luv this pic of Zac! Just had to scrap it.

TTFN!

>>>ATCs & Charity Ball! <<<

Haven't been able to scrap recently so dabbled in Artish Trading Cards (ATCs) instead. Anyway, I have to make a few for some swaps I'm in at the UKScrappers forum. Here's the Oriental ATCs that I've made:

I had so much fun doing these! Played with tissue paper, embossing power, watercolour pencils and stamping of course! I had these oriental stamps for quite a while now and so glad to be able to make use of them. I'm supposed to do 5 for a swap but of course had to do one for myself as I won't be seeing the 5 that I've made.

Here's another random ones that I've made for a swap group I'm in too:

The heart is actually a stamped image that I received as a birthday pressie from Morag (thanx!) Such a gorgeous stamp. The right ATC was made using the new bird stamps that I bought. Let's hope my swappee likes them.

The nite was spent at a Diamond Charity Ball for the Primrose Hospice. One of those poshy function where you had to dress up. I had a great time and thankfully MIL had the boys overnite at her place. Didn't get back till 2ish in the morning. Again, thanx god for satnav as it was set in the deepest countryside of Redditch. As usual I had to drive home while hubby looked out for badgers, fox and wild rabbits! Imagine asking me if I had seen a badger.... like I would be looking anywhere else instead of the road!!! Man!

The one good thing that came out from the Ball was a prize that we won... a handmade cake. Boy is it absolutely gorgoeous! Never seen such a beauty and it's a fruit cake too! Mmmmmm......

TTFN!

>>> Lace! <<<

Went out with Morag to Birmingham town centre. As usual headed towards the haberdashery and got myself some lovely lace! Headed towards the Rag Market to check out the stall as there's a lovely ribbon store in there. Ended up with more lace again. Then it was off to our favourite Chinese restaurant for tim sum. We had Singapore noodle and 2 tim sum dishes! Man, that has to be the highlight! On our way back, popped into a craft store near my place but wasn't too impressed really with the selection.

Rite, off to organise my lace.... can't create when stuff are in a rite mess! TTFN!

>>> Ohhhh, More Stamps! <<<

Look what the Postie brought me from the US!!! Shopped there quite a lot as I can't get the stuff here in the UK!

Stamps!!! Fontwerks and Bam Pop! Been hankering after the Fat Birds and when they came back in stock on 2peas, went and grabbed it quick! As for Fontwerks, no UK supplier stocks them so again another hunt on US online stores and saw some that needed to be added to my collection! As for the clear stamp birds, well, aren't they gorgeous. That was from US Ebay!

Rite off to create, nothing like new stash to get you going..... TTFN!

>>> Rest! <<<

It was a day of rest today and scrapping! Hubby took the kids out and I spent all day in peace! Came out with these!

Another 6x12" LO using Rhonna Farrer French Twist papers. Adore the little owl.... isn't he cute! Somehow this size shows off the paper better!

Had another go at Heidi Swapp playing cards. Luv them. Made a picture frame for Zac as I had already done one for Ollie. Got that robot stamp from ZingBoom kit. Isn't he adorable?!!

TTFN!

>>> Elections & Cycling! <<<

You may wonder what the above two have in common??? Well, it's Election day today and somehow my boys are at home due to school closure... I presume their school/nursery is being used as polling station. Which leads me to wonder why do the darn Council have to use schools instead of empty church halls, community centres etc! Do they have to close the entire school down just for people to slip in a sheet of paper into a box??? Doubt very much if they will get a high attendance rate anyway!

So with the boys at home and hubby taking the day off, we decided to go cycling instead and headed towards Birches Valley Forest Centre. Day started out cold but by afternoon, it brightened up and it was a brillant day!

Zac was a literal nitemare!!! From start to finish, he complained about the bumpiness of the track and thus slowed us down considerably as he refused to bulge and either one of us had to attend to him.
Eventually we gave up and headed towards the large adventure playground where they played for a good hour plus. Surprisingly he didn't find the playground bumpy!

After lunch, we dragged both out of the playground and began our cycle! Gosh, it was fun.... nice to be on the bike again! This time, Zac was more cooperative!

There were lots of artwork along the cycle paths. Makes it a refreshing sight.

Ollie the poser! He has a knack of posing in the most amusing way!

I reckon we cycled for about a good 2 hrs plus. It was 5pm when we decided to go home. TTFN!

>>> More Stash & Stamps! <<<

Wheee! Finally received my Homegrown DT kit featuring Rhonna Farrer French Twist papers, along with some stamps that I had bought too. Then came Little Silver Hat ribbon kits. I'm designing the June kit and it's absolutely gorgeous.... dusty pink and cream with a hint of vintage. A pity I do not have old photos but hey, that's not gonna stop me!

Spent the afternoon playing with my Homegrown kit and churned out 2 LOs:

Played with some new stamps, mostly from Autumn Leaves, on this LO!

The shape of this paper prompted me to do a 12x6" LO instead and you know what?!!! I luv it! The idea for this LO came very quickly and took me less than an hour to complete!

Had a crop at my place tonite and was distracted by the Apprentice and Desperate Housewives. Eventually did manage to come up with a LO albeit halfway!

Zac went out on a field trip today with his Nursery. He visited a farm and was excitedly telling me all his adventure. One particularly remark stood out... it was smelly where the pigs and cows were!!! TTFN!

>>> Happy Birthday ! <<<

to ME! Shan't bother revealing my age.... it's old! Hubby asked what I wanted and I didn't know! Can't say I want more scrapping supplies as I'm already overwhelmed so he gave me cash instead. Suit me fine. The boys both gave me a box of choccies each....mmmm now that's what I call a great pressie! Nothing like choccies to fuel the creative mind.

In the evening, the boys helped me cut the cake.
Zac had an enormous piece of cake and he literally finished every single bit, even asking me for the strawberry! He's constantly eating all day long. God knows where he puts it all....

TTFN!